more water - and a wake up call

Yesterday (Sunday) I finished my confined water diving. We learned a few more skills mostly pretty easy ones. A lot of taking you gear on and off under the water. We also had to practice skin diving (diving without gear) and that was pretty hard. He made us keep our weight belts on and I thought I was going to drown!!!! I swallowed so much ocean water yesterday. I was fighting off the urge to puke the whole time! I just knew i was going to be chumming the water. Luckily there was no puking. I'm anxious to get the open water dives done so that I can be done with the class stuff. It is fun and you learn a lot but i know there is more out there to see. We don't go any deeper than 20 feet in class and there is a lot to see at 20 feet. Imagine how much better it is the deeper you go!
One of the girls in my class was really cute. I had the chance to talk with her a lot while we were eating lunch or doing our 10 minute float test. She has been on island for about the same time as me. I assumed she was here with the military because I knew she wasn't Australian or with Continental. When I asked if her husband was Navy or Air force she said that he was Navy and was on a submarine!!!! I told her how cool I thought that was and she agreed and said she was really proud of her husband. The more I talked to her the more I got to know about her everyday life. Sometimes I find myself complaining because Kelly has to work a lot of nights and I'm always up early with the kids. Or if he has to work an island hopper and is gone for four days I just hate it. There are a lot of Navy families in our branch at church and I've realized that I'm pretty lucky. Most of their husbands get on their ships and they are gone for 3 or more weeks at a time!!!! Seeing the navy wives deal with that has made me grateful for having Kelly as much as I have him.
Well, this girl in my class, whose hubby is on the sub has it really bad!!! She said their normal schedule is 6 months on 6 months off..... can you imagine??????? Not seeing your husband for six months at a time?!?!?!?! And sometimes they have to go on "silent" mode where she can't talk on the phone or email him for weeks at a time! She said that his sub has been so busy lately that he isn't getting his 6 months off. She said the longest period of time she has had with him was 2 weeks!!!!!! Just listening to her made me feel really selfish and immature. She recently had a flood in her kitchen. She didn't have a husband to fix it or call the plumber - she had to do it. She doesn't have a dad here either to call over when her hubby isn't around. She does everything on her own. She mowes the lawn, trims the trees and bushes, and does minor repairs around the house. One of her friends, who also has a hubby on the sub, got a flat tire the other day, her fridge and freezer went out, and her water wasn't working. The girl in my class just said "I'll give her my other car, and we will just figure out how to fix all this. We don't have our husbands so we have to take care of each other." She said it so confidently. I know she is sad to not have her husband around, but she didn't complain the whole time I talked to her about it. She said her husband doesn't tell her the scary things about his job so that she won't worry - in return she doesn't complain to him about how long he is gone. She is amazing. All the military wives I know really amaze me. Every time I start to feel sorry for myself now, I know how stupid I'm really being. Not only are the military guys away from home much more than my husband, but often times they are put in very dangerous positions. I have a couple of friends who are pregnant right now and it is very possible that their hubby's will be gone soon after the babies are born!
I wish I could say I no longer feel sorry for myself - because I do. But when I find myself feeling that way I think of all the reminders I have around me or the women who really do run their homes on their own. I really admire those families for their sacrifices. I guess a four day trip is really nothing at all.

Under tha sea...

So I finished my first day of the dive portion of my dive school. I had classes Monday night thru Wednesday night. Today was my first time in the water with all my gear on!!!!
Last night I could hardly sleep! I was seriously so anxious! Luckily I had a slumber party at my house so I was able to keep my mind on other things. No, Arie isn't already hosting parties... I'm the Achievement/Activity Days leader in our branch and I had a slumber party with all the girls at my house. It was really low key, but it was really fun. The girls kept me busy and they kept me laughing. When it was time to hit the bed I crashed, but only for a couple hours or so. Then I tossed and turned, thinking up horrible things that would happen to me in the water. I just knew that I would either get eaten by a shark or I would spend the next week in a decompression chamber from getting the bends!
I'm happy to report that neither one happened. We learned all about our gear; how to assemble it and put it on.. We also learned the skills we would need to have in the water while diving. We only went to about a depth of 20 feet today. That doesn't sound very deep at all - but considering we are not supposed to breath under water period - it was still a cool experience. I saw lots of really neat fish and a HUGE anemone. The only problem I had was that my ears didn't equalize very well. It would take everyone else just a moment to get to the bottom, but I had to stop every foot or so and equalize my ears! It was annoying. At the end of our day I couldn't even finish the last dive because I couldn't get my ears to equalize at all. I was really mad at first. But you can't push your ears or you could have major injuries!
Tomorrow I have a couple more dives, all in shallow water. When I get back from the states I can finish my deep water dives. Hopefully by then my ears will buck up and just get through it!!!!!!!
I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself and what I've done so far. When I go to a beach normally I won't get in water that is deeper than my waist!!! Here in Guam the water is crystal clear too! But today i was like a fish (a fish hooked up to breathing tubes and gauges).
Wish me luck for tomorrow!! Soon my hubby and I can share his passion and swim the seas together! ...Well... the shallow seas where the sharks can't get me!

Island Children

I haven't posted in a while and I actually have had things to post about.... lazy I guess.

Living here on Guam life is very relaxed and casual. So casual in fact that my kids usually run around in their underwear and diaper. The only clothes we wear consistently are swimsuits. It has gotten so bad that when I try to put clothes on my kids Liam asks "Mom, where are we going?" Or if he sees me walk into the room with his clothes in my hands he starts crying and saying "MOM!!! I don't want to go anywhere!!"

The other day Liam woke up from a nap and we went outside to let Jet out. Our neighbor's girls were playing outside too. Liam wanted to play with them... I saw him run inside... when he came out he looked like this....
Yep - that's my boy running around in underwear and running shoes! And I love that he wasn't the least bit embarrassed! To make it even better, he was the only boy playing with about 4 different girls. The ladies love him!

Our neighbors daughter, Claire, is HILARIOUS!!!!! She was bragging to me about how strong she is, and to prove it this is what happened...

Did you see those cute little buns??? Arie also loves to run around like a little island girl...
When my kids do wear clothes, they choose to sport the latest designs courtesy of ALPA (thanks Honey!)...
Before I end this I just can't help but post these pics of Arie. She looks older everyday to me!

Sad day of shots....

Well we took the kids to the doctor yesterday. Arie was a little bit behind in her shots, and Liam needed a clean bill of health for his new school. We thought Liam would get his ears looked at and Arie would probably get a couple shots. Sadly the visit was not that easy. Arie ended up needing five shots!!!!!! Actually they gave her some early so we didn't have to come back in 2 months. But 5 SHOTS!!!!!!!! It was sooooooooooooo sad! Liam also got three shots, and a TB skin test TB is so prevalent here on island so every child must have one in order to get into school. Those aren't that bad but he still didn't like it. He did pretty well with the shots. He cried but he go over it fast! Arie on the other hand, holds onto her anger! Who could blame her though with 5!!!!!! It was so sad watching her. Liam was crying while watching her too. It was sweet, but also sad. Good thing they have candy at the doctors office because my kids would never go back if they didn't have a reward at the end.
Liam's visit was really involved. Usually to get a clean bill of health they just just check the past records of visits, look in their ears, nose, eyes, throat, check their temp... the usual. But this time the Doctor did a really involved visit. She was asking him all kinds of questions and checking his fine motor skills. Most of the motor skills she was quizzing him on were for age four. He actually got all of them! I was even surprised by the things he was doing! I don't really work on that stuff with my kids - I don't want to stress them or myself out. Most kids do things at their own pace, so why stress out or make them feel bad about themselves. I have a neighbor who is an occupational and speech therapist - I told her one day to just tell me if she thought Liam as behind for any reason. I don't really know what to look for anyway. But watching Liam do everything that doctor asked him was really funny! He was having so much fun with it! Who knew fine motor skills were fun!
When she was testing Arie's motor skills it went a little different. Arie did really well, but she didn't buy into the "game" situation. After a while she just got really pissed that the doctor was trying to get her to do stuff. The doctor even laughed about it! Arie could do what the doc wanted her to do, but she wouldn't do it for long. She would look at the doctor and wrinkle her brow and then yell! I guess she just didn't have time for all that hul-a-bah-loo!!!!!! It was so funny. The doctor laughed and then said "She must be pretty smart actually to not fall for any of this." I think that was the doctors nice way of saying "WOW your 16 month old daughter has WAY TOO MUCH ATTITUDE!"
I already knew that!